Need help choosing Motherboard please.

[Ice009]

Hey guys,

I am totally stuck on which motherboard to get. I had originally decided on a Gigabyte P35 DS3P a couple of months ago, but now that I'm pretty close to buying the stuff I've completely changed my mind. One reason I changed my mind is because I would prefer a PCIe2.0 board and I also read about DPC latency issues on Gigabyte boards - http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=2182171&FTVAR_STKEYWORDFRM=&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

I've decided on a Q9450 or a Q6600/700 to go with it and I would like to overclock it to about 3.3-3.6Ghz with air cooling (TRUE).

Here is a list of boards I'm currently looking at:

Evga 750i - I would love this board, but I read about video corruption during the playback of movies and games. Since I want to use my computer for watching movies this pretty much puts a big strike against the board unless Evga can release a fix for it.

Asus P5K-E - PCIe1.0 The reason I'm unsure about PCIe 1.0 boards is would the next gen vid cards require and PCIe2.0 board to run at their max potential?

Gigabyte EX-38 DS4 - This would be my first choice if it wasn't for the DPC latency Issues (See above link).

Asus P5E - Don't know much about this board. Has anyone heard of any bugs or faults?

Asus Rampage Formula - I did not want to spend this much, but I actually think it's a fair price with the package you get...free game, antivirus etc. Only thing is would this be too complicated of a board for someone who is new to overclocking? For example someone who has never overclocked before ;).


What do you guys think? Which board would be best to get for my situation?

[alexlyc]

Just get the 750i board and be done with it. Compare features like SLI, and oc ability, lifetime warranty, step up with the Asus X38/X48 baords. 750i seems to be the best bang for your $. [H]review (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ5NCw2LCxoY29uc3VtZXI=) said the highest fsb they can reach was 465MHz, so if you were to oc a Q6600, you can reach 4.19GHz, more than enough for your need.

[zanzabar]

Just get the 750i board and be done with it. Compare features like SLI, and oc ability, lifetime warranty, step up with the Asus X38/X48 baords. 750i seems to be the best bang for your $. [H]review (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ5NCw2LCxoY29uc3VtZXI=) said the highest fsb they can reach was 465MHz, so if you were to oc a Q6600, you can reach 4.19GHz, more than enough for your need.

not realy, its got 6 phase power and a faulty raid controller

out of those i would go p5E it has 8 phase power and duel phase ddr power, and its teh same as the rampage adn u can flash it with the rampage bios, so when u need more settings u can flash the bios and get them

and pci-e2 is less about speed and more about power management, u wont see a hit at all, maybe slightly longer load times

[Ice009]

not realy, its got 6 phase power and a faulty raid controller

out of those i would go p5E it has 8 phase power and duel phase ddr power, and its teh same as the rampage adn u can flash it with the rampage bios, so when u need more settings u can flash the bios and get them

and pci-e2 is less about speed and more about power management, u wont see a hit at all, maybe slightly longer load times

So I don't really even need a PCIE2.0 board for the next gen cards then? That is good to know as I wanted to get an 8800GT and upgrade later. Just didn't want to change my motherboard over too.

I think I'm leaning towards the P5E now on your recommendation. I saw it mentioned somewhere else about the Rampage bios flash. How come you can do this? Are the boards the same? Is there any other bugs or known problems with the P5E? The Q9450 overclocks good with this board? I'm only interested in 3.6 I don't really need to go any higher.

[DarkDisciple]

If thats the case, whats the best non-$400 board for SLI?

[Asgard_thor]

okay, here's the thing!

750i is a good board, dont talk crap about it
the sata issue bothered me too, made overclocking impossible, in till, I got the "BRIGHT" idea to google it, Problem fixxed, I never had a problem with videos, me and my gf watch movies all the time with it, also, its one of the BEST looking boards i've ever seen, I dont feel anything hot on it

[zanzabar]

u guys need the sli talk (also applys to xfire, but xfire boards u can run non grafix cards in the slots)

dont waist money thinking of sli in the future by the time that u go to sli (unless u start with it) it will be when games start to lagg but sli dosnt add more power it adds more FPS so if u lagg with one card u will still lagg with 2. but the best part is when ur game slows in 6-9 months the card will be EOL and sine other people had your misguided idea of future proof sli the cards jump in price and are then more than the ne card that beats both cards that u would have if u went sli, but you are strapped to an inferior board for no purpose (look the GTX is back up to $400 and climbing, the ultra is $800 again, gts 640 is $325)



that said the 750i isnt bad it just is worse than the x38/48 or p35 or 965. when you go to decide whats more important what it dose now or what can be added that wont be used, the p5e will get a great oc out of the box (same board as the maximus and rampage for reference) and can be flashed with the rampage bios without buying anything. but the 750i is inferior in every way but it can do sli, and in doing so is more expensive than it should be and brings in the sli upgrade cycle price hikes.


so what do u want, the best board that u can fit your budget or a worse board that lets u do sli that u wont use


edit, dose the sli talk need to go into my comment, and dont forget that u can sell the GT when its eol and get a new card like a GX2 (the sli that works), or the latest card for little more than the gt will sell for

[alexlyc]

Woah woah woah, back it up ATI/Intel fan boy.
You are making a false claim that the price on gtx is climbing back up, they are still dropping from what I have seen in the market. Beside you seem to omit 8800GT G92. This card is selling like hot cake everyday, $140 a piece and still dropping all over the place. I personally would go with 750i for 8800GT SLI rather than spending extra cash on an intel board for the extra oc difference that has no real performance gain except benchmarking.

[Ice009]

What are the main issues with the Evga 750? Can someone possibly lists the pros and cons of the board?

I am leaning toward Asus P5E, but the Evga has me interested. Would both boards get a Q9450 to 3.6?

[zanzabar]

Woah woah woah, back it up ATI/Intel fan boy.
You are making a false claim that the price on gtx is climbing back up, they are still dropping from what I have seen in the market. Beside you seem to omit 8800GT G92. This card is selling like hot cake everyday, $140 a piece and still dropping all over the place. I personally would go with 750i for 8800GT SLI rather than spending extra cash on an intel board for the extra oc difference that has no real performance gain except benchmarking.

the GT is almost EOL then it will go up

and im not an intel/amd fan boy, im salty at NV for killing components of mine and when i do pc repair work hard ware failures almost always come from their memory controllers on intel, and the SB on amd, and raid on both

[Ice009]

Anyone else got any opinions?

I read a little of this review yesterday http://www.cpu3d.com/content/view/4924/54/ about the P45 Asus P5Q-E and they got a Q6600 B3 up to 500 FSB (7X500) with air cooling. Are these P45 boards worth waiting for? Is that doable on most other boards?

[zanzabar]

i would get the p45, and a b3 that high is amazing

[Ice009]

Bump. Still trying to decide which board to get.

[hillywav]

i heard that in EVGAforum that 750i video corup issue will be fix @ monday 26/5 -_-a
try 2 wait until first of june to decide, if havent fix.... drop it (evga 750i)
me aswell still lookin about the vid corup issue cos really want to get 750i

[L'enFer]

I'd look at DFI P35-X38 motherboards only because of its overclocking possibilities and name of the brand :).

[Ice009]

i heard that in EVGAforum that 750i video corup issue will be fix @ monday 26/5 -_-a
try 2 wait until first of june to decide, if havent fix.... drop it (evga 750i)
me aswell still lookin about the vid corup issue cos really want to get 750i

I can wait another 1-2 weeks so that is cool.

Can you keep us updated please? Or better yet give me a link to a thread at the EVGA forums?

[hillywav]

I can wait another 1-2 weeks so that is cool.

Can you keep us updated please? Or better yet give me a link to a thread at the EVGA forums?

here you go buddy
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=253891

over 45 pages debate between fanboys, overfrustated users, and more :rofl:

2morrow i will rechek that thread again (tired after reading 40 pages long XD)